Some aspects of breeding relations and territorial behaviour of the Lapwing - E.A. Lebed. - Berkut. 3 (2) 1994. P. 121-124.
Research was carried out in Sumy region in flood-lands of the Vorskla river and on fish ponds near Sumy in 1988 and 1990. Schemes of pail placing are obtained by means of the mapping and transect counts. Borders of individual plots were determined by marking points of frontier conflicts and air demonstrations on the scheme of the key plot. Spring arrival of Lapwings in the study area takes place in the first ten-day of March. In the cold springs it can be delayed to the beginning of April. Display flights are observed already in a few days. Period of the forming of individual territories, breeding demonstrations and nest building lasts about 23 days. In the Dnieper Forest-Steppe Zone the breeding activity begins in the second ten-day of March (fig. 1). The territory of a pair has feeding plots (fig. 2) visiting several times daily. The territory is protected by the male. He banishes strangers. These conflicts end almost always by demonstration flights. The duration of flights vary from 0.2 to 2-2.5 minutes depending on the acuteness of situation. The nest building takes place end of March and beginning of April. The male builds also several ritual nests. This promotes change of the sexual partner by the female. The agile female is the centre of the male territorial activity, but she sticks to the small and fixed plot in the common protected territory. [Russian].
Key words: Lapwing, breeding activity, territorial behaviour, demonstration flight, nest.